The Spirit of the Dragon
by raven-anya
Summary: Kisara moves to Domino City after being accused of being a witch in her previous town. When she bumps into Tea, literally, she begins to wonder if Domino is the place that she can call home? Will be Seto and Kisara, I promise.
1. Chapter 1

Hi! Raven here! I apologize for uploading almost nothing recently, but my summer, and all of last school year, actually, were chaos. I had to undergo major surgery on my wrist, and have only recently regain the level of mobility that my doctor wants me to have. But enough with my complaining and on with the story. Also, please note before you begin, that this is only the beginning and that I will do my best to post at least once a week_ if possible. _However, I am a sophomore in high school so that might be a bit difficult, though I do have all of next week off.

I don't own Yu-gi-oh! or any of the recognizable characters from the manga or anime. The plot of this story and Kisara's last name, however, are of my creation. Enjoy!

* * *

Kisara Draconis walked down the main street in Domino City, looking down at the ground in front of her as she walked to hide her face from the people around her. Her vibrant sapphire eyes were shadowed by her pale silver-colored hair. At home she had been labeled as a witch because of these traits, and she was scared that the same thing was going to happen to her in this new city.

"Hey, Yugi! She heard a voice near her shout, and she looked up in surprise. The young blonde-haired man was waving at another person who was father down the street.

"Hi, Joey!" the other boy called back. Kisara was mystified by the boy's gravity-defying hair, the tri-colored strands standing up on their own. Was this boy not shunned as she was? What was different about this city that he had friends?

By this time Kisara had stopped walking and was standing in the middle of the sidewalk watching the two teenagers interact. The boy with the tri-colored hair, Yugi, was giving the blonde boy, Joey, a high five. However, she was jolted out of her thoughts by someone slamming into her back. To Kisara, it seemed as though she was falling in slow-motion before an arm had pulled her back up to a standing position.

"I am so sorry," the girl who had bumped into her squeaked. The girl brushed her shoulder-length hair back behind her ear. "I'm not usually so clumsy, so I really am sorry."

"Don't worry," Kisara told her quietly, "I'm used to it."

"Hey, are you new in town?" the girl asked suddenly after studying Kisara for a moment.

"Yeah. I just moved here. I'm Kisara," she said quietly, unsure of whether or not to tell this stranger her name.

"Cool. I'm Tea. Have you seen much of Domino yet?" At Kisara's slight nod Tea continued, "Well, then why don't you come and spend some time with my friends and me. We can show you around the city." Tea was bouncing at the prospect of being able to show the young silver-haired teenager in front of her, though Kisara did not know why. Most people had tried to avoid her at all costs; why was this girl taking an interest in her? Was this town so different from her old town?

* * *

So...? What do you think? Should I continue, or is a terrible start to a equally terrible story and I should delete it before I go any farther? These are the questions that plague my mind, so please help me. Also, I know that Seto hasn't even been introduced yet, but I promise this will end up being a Kisara and Seto story. I just feel like Kisara needs to have some knowledge of the town before they meet, and as you never meet her in the modern arc of the original manga, I feel that having her move to Domino City is a good way to introduce her.


	2. Chapter 2

"Thank you," Kisara said quietly, still looking down as she spoke. She only looked up again as Tea grabbed hold of her hand and started pulling her down the sidewalk towards the two males that she had seen earlier.

"Hey, Tea!" the blonde exclaimed when she and Kisara were a few feet away from them.

"Hi, guys," Tea squealed in return. When she noticed Joey and Yugi looking at Kisara she introduced them. "Guys, this is Kisara. She's new in town, so I offered to show her around today. Kisara, these are my friends Joey Wheeler and Yugi Muto."

"Hi, Kisara," the teen with the tri-colored hair said, "I'm Yugi."

Kisara gave both of them a small smile, shaking the hand that Yugi held out to her. Joey then held out his curled fist, and Kisara gently hit it with her own. "I hope that you don't mind that I'm coming," she told them, looking down as she spoke, her cheeks tinted red.

"Eh, we don't mind," Joey told her, clapping her on the shoulder. "Hey, Tea?" Joey asked suddenly. "Do you know where Tristan is?"

"Not sure, but he should be here soon." Somehow the brown-haired girl was still chipper, even though one of her friends was not present.

"Hey!" another person shouted from down the street, their voice getting increasingly louder as they spoke. "Joey! Yugi! Tea!"

"'Bout time, man," Joey called to whoever was calling to them. When Kisara turned around, she saw another teenage boy with brown hair. "Kisara, this is Tristan Taylor."Joey told her after the fourth member of the small group had joined them.

"Nice to meet you, Kisara," Tristan told her, also hitting his fist to hers. "So, are we heading to the café or not?"

"We were waiting for you, man!" Joey said, and Kisara could practically see the blood vessels in his forehead jumping. At the sight of it, Kisara moved out from, too used to seeing that look on people who wound up beating her. As soon as Joey was free of holding Kisara he leapt at Tristan, knocking the other boy to the ground. Kisara's eyes widened at the movement.

Tea and Yugi sighed, almost in sync. "Ignore them when they get like this, Kisara," the other girl told her. "They're always like this." She turned away from Kisara for a moment to shout at Tristan and Joey, both of whom were still fighting, "When you two are done feel free to join us at the café!" She sighed again when she noticed that neither of them were paying attention. "Alright, let's go," she said, sighing for a second time.

She and Yugi started down the sidewalk again, with Kisara following closely behind. The two pointed out different places to the new girl, stopping only when they arrived in front of a small open-air café that was filled with wrought-iron tables and chairs that were mostly empty of patrons.

"Come on," Yugi said, ushering the two females to a medium-sized table at the side of the cluster of smaller tables. There was another medium-sized table next to it, and Yugi was pushing that table into the other. When Kisara noticed this she glanced over at Tea questioningly.

"There are a few people that you haven't met yet who are meeting us here – you'll like them," she explained.

"Tea! Yugi!" someone called from a few yards down the street.

"Tea looked away from Kisara to see who had called over to them. "Serenity! Mai!" she practically squealed. Kisara followed the brunette's gaze to see the other young women, one a blonde and the other red head. The red-head was dressed for comfort rather than style in jeans, a tee shirt, and a pair of sneakers, while the blonde was dressed in a corset and short blazer with a mini-skirt and high heels. Noticing what the two new-comers were wearing, Kisara inspected Tea's and Yugi's clothing closely for the first time. Tea was wearing a tight tee shirt and a skirt, and Yugi had on a navy blue blazer jacket and long navy-colored pants. He had a black shirt underneath his jacket and a gold pyramid-shaped pendant hung upside down on a chain. When Kisara saw the pendant a pain jolted through her head, making her wince in pain. When she opened her eyes after they had fallen shut, she noticed that the other two girls had joined Tea and were looking at her concern along with her.

"I'm alright," Kisara said lightly. "It's just a headache. I'll be fine in a little bit."

"You sure, hun?" the blonde asked, concern showing in her violet eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she reiterated. "I'm Kisara Draconis," she continued, holding her hand out.

"Mai Valentine. Welcome to Domino." It was when the tall blonde girl outstretched her hand to meet hers that Kisara noticed the sole black thing amongst the purple and white of Mai's outfit: a pouch for holding a Duel Monsters deck.

"You duel?" Kisara asked.

"Yep," Mai answered cheerfully. "Do you?" She tilted her head as she asked.

"A little. I'd rather duel for fun rather than competition, though." Kisara then turned to the other girl, whose gaze she could feel on her during the small conversation with Mai.

"Hi," the red-head stated quietly, seeming as shy as Kisara herself. "I'm Serenity Wheeler."

"It's nice to meet you. Are you Joey's sister?" she asked, trying to pull the quiet girls out of her shell like Tea had done for her.

"Yeah. Did you meet him already?"

"Yep. He and Tristan seem… nice."

"That would be my big brother." Serenity giggled quietly. "Always with his friends."

"Hey, Mai, Serenity!" Yugi called over from where he was placing chairs around the double table.

"Hi, Yugi," Serenity said, walking towards the table to talk to Yugi. Mai waved a quick hi, then turned back to Kisara, a speculative look in her eye.

"Do you have your deck on you?" she asked Kisara, who nodded quickly. "Can I take a look, hun?"

"Only if I can see yours," Kisara shot back, already becoming comfortable around these new people ever though she had never been around people who were kind to her.

"Deal." Mai smirked. She opened the pouch above her knee and pulled out a stack of cards while Kisara moved the hem of her shirt out of the way, revealing a metallic silver pouch clipped onto her belt. She also pulled a stack of Duel Monsters cards from the pouch, then placed her deck in Mai's outstretched hand as she placed her deck in Kisara's hand.

Kisara flipped through the cards looking down at the winged harpies that were staring up at her. "Wow!" she whispered, looking up at Mai, who was glancing at the card facing her with a critical violet eye.

"Hey, Kisara," she started, still staring at whatever card was at the top of the deck, "where did you get this?"

"Hm?" Kisara was puzzled by the question the other duelist posed, not understanding why Mai would be confused by her deck when she herself had an extremely well balanced deck with its harpies at the center.

"This." Mai picked the card that was in her hand up and turned it so it was facing its owner. Kisara froze when she saw the image painted on the face of the card: a graceful Blue-Eyes White Dragon that was pulling itself out of a large stone tablet that was carved with the image of a simplified Dragon. "I never knew that there was a fifth Blue-Eyes card."


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry I wasn't able to say anything on the last chapter, I was rushing to get it up and my mom was rushing out of the house. I hope all of you enjoyed it. Here's chapter three, and I apologize that this one is so short. I had wanted my next update to be as long as chapter two was, but when I was writing this seemed like the most natural place to break for a new chapter. So, please, ignore my incessant rambling and enjoy the chapter, but first, as i am getting sick of constantly typing this, this is for the rest of the story: this is _fanfiction_, I do not and never will own any of the recognizable characters. Enjoy!

* * *

Kisara glanced down at the ground, carefully calculating a response to her new friend's question. "I met Maximillion Pegasus a few years back. He said that it was a shame that I didn't have a Dragon of my own with how connected to it I was. A few days later I was being flown to his manor to get the card that he had made for me." She laughed lightly before continuing with her next sentence, "He was the person who first showed me that kindness was possible." She stopped there, not wanting to go into the rather pathetic story of her child. "Every summer after that I spent at his manor, helping him to design new cards while he helped me realize a lot of things about where I stood. I consider him more of a father than my actual blood-father."

Mai studied the other teen's face, seeing the deep sorrow in her eyes as she looked at her prize card. Suddenly she started laughing, and Kisara moved forward and her hand swooped down to grab her prized deck, shuffling her gorgeous Blue-Eyes White Dragon back into it. Before she could slide her deck back into her holder though, Mai stopped laughing and started talking again. "How about we duel one of these days? It would be fun."

Kisara smiled, realizing that these people were all she had needed to pull her out of her depressive slump. "I'm in." She smirked suddenly, "But I warn you, I'm not an easy person to defeat."

"Neither am I, hun." Mai smirked right back at Kisara, then held out her hand as the silver-haired girl gave her deck back to her. "But I am anxious to see what you can do with that Dragon of yours. I've only seen someone duel with one of them once, so I'm looking forward to seeing how long I can stand up against it."

"Same. You have an amazing deck, Mai. I've heard what the harpie ladies can do from Maximillion, so I am looking forward to this as well." Suddenly Kisara froze, remembering something that she should have remembered sooner. "Just," she begged, "don't' tell anyone that I have a Dragon, please. If people knew I had a Blue-Eyes I would be swamped by people wanting to challenge me to see if they could get a hold of it."

"Don't worry, hun, my lips are sealed." Mai winked, then swaggered over to the table, sitting gracefully in a chair that was half pushed-in. As she was looking in the direction that she, Tea, and Yugi had come from, Kisara could see Joey and Tristan coming down the street, both of them smiling and joking. Seeing everyone watching them, both young men ducked under the awning that covered the café.

Tristan smiled when he noticed Kisara watching him and Joey. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kisara, really. Me getting jumped by Wheeler had nothing to do with your coming; it would have happened anyway." Tristan seemed to look over Kisara's shoulder. "Hey, man!" he called to whoever was behind her.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it; next chapter should be coming soon as I have the rest of the week off.


	4. Chapter 4

Kisara spun around quickly, an automatic reaction for her. The newcomer had long black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail, and he had an earring made out of a die hanging off his left ear. The boy was also dressed completely in red and black, with a red button-down shirt and black pants.

"Kisara," Mai introduced from her chair when the youth arrived, "this is-"

Mai was cut off by Kisara's quick speed in jumping up and hugging the boy. "Duke!" she almost screeched. "How have you been?" By now the pale girl had let go of the newly arrived Duke Devlin.

"Kisara!" Duke seemed surprised to see Kisara, but when he realized that it was really herm he gave her a hug in return. "How have you been?"

"Wait," Joey interrupted before Kisara could answer, "you two know each other?"

"We were introduced last summer by a mutual friend," Kisara told them, looking at Duke out of the corner of her eye to tell him to not tell the others who their mutual friend was. "And I've been good, despite everything. This is where you decided to set up shop?

Duke nodded, then looked over Kisara's shoulder. "How is our mutual friend, by the way?"

"I'm actually not sure," Kisara replied, laughing slightly. "I haven't seen-"

"Kisara! Duke!" A voice shouted joyfully from down the street, exactly from the point where the latter had been looking. When the former turned around, she was pleasantly surprised by who she saw.

"Maximillion," she said when he arrived in front of the small group.

"Kisara-child," he replied, pulling her into one of the tightest hugs any of them had ever seen. "How have you been? How's your guardian?"

Kisara laughed slightly at how worried he was. "We're both good." She realized that only Mai and Duke know about her friendship with Pegasus, and when she looked over at Yugi and the others they were proving her suspicions correct and looking between the two of them.

"Yugi-boy!" Pegasus exclaimed, noticing the others for the first time as he followed Kisara's line-of-sight.

"Oh, great," they all suddenly heard a hard voice say from the street. "Mokuba, you only mentioned the mutt, you never mentioned Pegasus."

Kisara felt a shiver go through her body at the voice, and when she turned around she was hit by a wave of familiarity at the sight of the older teen's chocolate brown hair and lapis blue eyes. The next thing she was aware of was the headache, which had greatly diminished, from seeing Yugi's necklace returning even worse than it had been. The last thing she was aware of was blackness engulfing her vision and a voice inside her rejoicing.

* * *

So... I'm sure that all of you know who the mystery man is, and understand a few of the other little things in this chapter. I apologize that it's so short, but Kisara's blackout was an appropriate place to stop for now, though I do have the next part written, to be quite honest. Hope all of you are enjoying this so far, and I sincerely hope that everyone on the US had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We have now officially entered the holiday season.

Raven Anya


	5. Chapter 5

Oh, Isis! I'm so sorry that I abandoned all of you, but life came before fantasy, unfortunately. Here's chapter 5:

* * *

Seto Kaiba's first thought when he caught sight of the long silver-blue hair that fell in graceful waves down the back of the unfamiliar girl with Yugi's geek squad was that it wasn't possible. That the girl never existed in the first place and therefore did not exist within the girl in front of him no matter what his subconscious was telling him. His second was shock as the girl turned around and looked at him with vibrant sapphire eyes. As suddenly as she had turned around, though, she was falling, looking as though she was collapsing in on herself. Seto was the first to move, feeling something inside of him crying out at the thought of this gentle beauty getting injured. When he caught her in his arms, he held her close and glared up at the idiots who had surrounded him and the unconscious girl who was still clutched to his chest.

"I hope that all of you are happy that she could have died just now," he whipped at them, still delivering the death glare that he was famous for within his company.

"We didn't think she was going to pass out , Rich Boy," the mutt, Joey Wheeler, he reminded himself, spat back at him, giving Kaiba a glare of his own.

"Is she alright, big brother?" Mokuba asked from behind his shoulder.

"She'll be fine, Mokuba," Kaiba told his younger brother softly. "She just fainted." He brushed the girl's hair back from her face, marveling at how much this girl looked like the girl from the vision that he had seen during his duel with Ishizu Ishtar during the Battle City finals.

"Her name is Kisara Draconis," Kaiba heard from above him. When he looked up he saw that it was Maximillion Pegasus who had spoken.

"Do any of you know where she lives?" Mokuba asked suddenly, and Kaiba looked up at his younger brother in surprise. "Well, her sitting here in the street isn't the best idea, you know that, big brother. So do any of you know?"

"We only met her today," Tea explained to the brothers, looking down at Kisara's peaceful face, which was still pressed against the older Kaiba's chest. "Duke, Pegasus, you two have known her longer than the rest of us. Do either of you know?"

"I didn't even know she was moving here, otherwise I would have offered to help her get settled. Pegasus?" Devlin explained.

Kaiba looked to Pegasus, but he was saddened by the confused looked on the older man's face. "Sorry, Kaiba-boy, but I was not aware of her move either. Though, with her situation back in her hometown I would not be surprised if this move to Domino City was a decision she made only a few days ago."

Devlin looked at the older man in surprise. "What do you mean?"

Pegasus sighed and looked down, a look on his face that Kaiba would never have associated with the man plainly visible on his face: nervousness. "It is not my story to tell, it's hers," Pegasus nodded down at the peaceful looking young woman still in the CEO's arms. "All I can say is that her childhood was not as peaceful as one would expect from her attitude."

"She was saying that," Mai cut in, looking down at the pale girl with unhidden sorrow readable in her eyes. "She said that she considers you the closest thing to a father that she has." Mai was now obviously speaking to Pegasus.

"And I consider her a daughter. Kaiba-boy, may I see her deck?"

Kaiba sent the silver-haired man a questioning look as he opened the metallic pack that became visible on her belt when Kisara collapsed.

"Why do ya wanna see her deck?" Wheeler asked as Pegasus accepted the thick stack of Duel Monsters cards that Kaiba handed him.

"Because," Pegasus explained, "most of these cards she helped design during the summers that she spent living with me." He continued shuffling through the thick deck, stopping several times to examine the card in front of him. "She left home," he stated simply when he reached the beginning.

"How do you know?" Yugi asked, a slightly confused look on his face.

"Many of the cards that she has with her are not actually part of her deck. The only time she leaves the house with them, as far as I am aware, is when she is not planning to return for several months at the earliest."

This statement caused Kaiba to look down at Kisara's face. For the first time, he noticed the slight lines that seemed to cut into her forehead, to still be visible even when she was not conscience. What had caused those lines? What had happened to her that forced her to leave home without telling anyone? Was it possible that her life had been like his?


	6. Chapter 6

Yay! I actually got this up quickly! Don't expect this again, please. Alrighty then, here's chapter 6...

* * *

Without realizing it, Kaiba brushed more of the hair away from Kisara's face. "We'll make sure she's okay," he said finally. The geek squad, Mai, and Pegasus all looked at him in surprise while his younger brother just smiled happily. "We have more than enough room at the manor. And something tells me Mokuba would refuse to talk to me if I didn't do anything." Kaiba ignored the voice in his head which was telling him that there was another reason too.

Mokuba looked at his older brother, noticing that Kaiba was still looking at Kisara's face. "We'll make sure she's okay, guys. Seto, we should get her back to the manor," he reminded his brother.

Kaiba nodded and stood up, the blue-eyed girl still cradled carefully in his arms. "Let's go, Mokuba." He walked back to the still-idling limo parked at the curb and slid into the seat, placing Kisara next to him.

Mokuba clambered into the seat across from the two older young adults and shouted a quick goodbye to everyone who was still at the café as he pulled the back door closed. Neither he nor his older brother spoke for a time, with the older Kaiba breaking the tense silence only when they were nearly home.

"Mokuba, inform the maids that we have a guest and ask them to make some plain vegetable soup for her when she wakes up."

"Alright, big brother. Which room is she going to be in?" the younger boy questioned his brother, wide violet eyes also locked on the young woman lying in the car's backseat.

"The room next to mine is made up; I'll let her rest there. After she wakes up she can tell us how she got to be here in Domino."

By this point, the white automobile had turned into the long driveway of the Kaiba mansion with the wrought-iron gates closing behind it. Within another few minutes the car had stopped in front of the large wooden doors that opened onto the large, open foyer. However, neither Seto nor Mokuba moved from their seats until the door had been opened by the suited driver. Mokuba was the first to scramble out of his seat, with Seto following behind at a slower pace as to not jostle Kisara.

"Thank you, Alex," Seto told the fair-haired who still stood next to the open car door. "Do you mind opening the main doors?"

"Not at all, Mister Kaiba." The man bowed his head slightly, then moved over to the imposing doors and opened the right-most one. After the brothers had walked into the manor, the driver nodded again and closed the door behind him as he exited the foyer.

"I'll go talk to the maids, big brother," Mokuba called up the large staircase to Seto, who had started climbing them only seconds after entering the house. Seto's only reply to his younger sibling was to turn the corner down the hallway which housed his bedroom and several spare rooms.

Seto strode down the long hallway, barely pausing to force open the slightly gapped door next to his sealed one. He set the pale young woman down on the bed, then dragged the chair that was standing over in the corner next to the bed. He winced as its feet squealed loudly on the hardwood floor, only allowing himself some minute feeling of relief when he noticed that Kisara's face was still peaceful. Suddenly, however, she groaned and the vivid sapphire eyes that Seto had only glimpsed for a second before she had fallen fluttered open.

"How are you?" he questioned her, vacating his sat next to her to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Honestly," she answered, laughing slightly, "I'm not quite sure. And I can't say I've ever fainted," she shuddered at the word, "before."

"Alright then, Miss Draconis, a question you can answer then: why did you move to Domino City? Pegasus and Devlin Both said that they had no idea that you were in town."

Kisara jumped slightly at the question and looked away with a speed that surprised Seto. When she turned back towards him, he saw a shadow of pain glazing her eyes. When she noticed him staring she looked away again.

Seto, however, was more preoccupied by the brief glimpse of pain that he had seen on her face. The look was only recognizable because he had seen it so often in the mirror while Gozaburo was still alive. That haunted look had also been visible faintly on Mokuba's face during that same time. He reached over and put his hand on her knee, causing her to look up in surprise.

"It's alright. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No. It's alright. It's just difficult to think about. Maximilion doesn't even know the truth about what I went through." She looked down at her knee, where Seto's hand still rested; Seto could feel the heat of her body through her jeans. Seto's heart beat faster as she leaned into his body for comfort. "But you're different, I can tell. You've felt sorrow before; I can see it in your face."

Seto looked at the young woman in surprise, shocked that she had noticed what so many others had failed to acknowledge. "You're right," he whispered quietly, looking at Kisara in quiet awe. He suddenly spoke louder, "You know, no one's ever noticed anything that happened to me beside owning the company So, thank you," he said, quietly whispering again.

"I should be thanking you," she laughed lightly. Her pale cheeks suddenly turned a brilliant scarlet as her stomach gave a faint growl. This made Seto laugh slightly.

"One of the maids is bringing up some soup," he told her.

"Thank you. You really don't have to do this for me. I can take care of myself, you know."


	7. Chapter 7

Here you all go, the latest chapter of Spirit. I'm sorry that I took me so long to get this up. It's been written in my notebook for months, but I never go the chance to finish typing it. School and Girl Scouts also interrupted to make themselves known. Not only am I a junior in high school, but my troop is working on our Gold Award, and our council somewhat hates us.

Several of you, my readers, mentioned that Seto was acting a bit unlike himself in past chapters; I did that for a reason. This story takes place after the Millennium World manga series and the Dawn of the Duel anime arc – which, I will add, I still need to watch subtitled. 4Kids ruined the dub – so he has seen the Kisara in the past. He saw her get tortured. He even saw her give her life for his past incarnation. When he sees the modern day Kisara Draconis, even though he tries to push the memories back, he can't help but think of the ancient Egyptian Kisara who died. He also sees a kindred spirit in her, so he feels comfortable telling her some of his past.

Do I need to say it again? Alright, if I must. I don't own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh! and I never will. Get it through your heads, people, it's called FANfiction for a reason.

Please don't kill me!

* * *

"I have no doubt that you can. Pegasus mentioned-"

Seto was cut off by the arrival of one of the manor's many maids. "Mister Kaiba, the soup you requested for your guest." The auburn haired young woman moved gracefully into the room, placed a tray bearing two large bowls of the hot liquid on the bedside table, bowed slightly, and left the room. Seto passed Kisara one of the bowls and a spoon, which he pulled out of one of the napkins that was sitting on the tray. After he made sure that she was situated with her meal, he picked up the other bowl and spoon for himself. He chuckled lightly when he realized what Mokuba must have done.

Kisara looked over at him in confusion at the sound. "What's so amusing?" she asked quietly, setting her spoon down into her bowl.

"My brother must have asked them to make lunch for me too. He must have figured that I wouldn't eat at all otherwise."

"Why wouldn't you eat?"

"I'm usually up in my office, buried in my work. That means I usually don't come down."

She laughed slightly, then paused to finish her soup. "It's easy to forget that you're a normal teenager when you're running a company, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Sometimes I get so caught up in my work for KaibaCorp that I forget about everything else."

"That's not a bad thing," Kisara told Seto, setting her empty bowl back onto the tray. "Sometimes it's a good thing to be able to escape into something, be it work or fun. For me, art was always an escape. I would always turn to music as well."

By this time Seto had also emptied his bowl and he used the time spent putting his bowl back on the tray to compose his face back into its carefully neutral mask. When he turned back around to face Kisara, his bewilderment was guarded against her eyes. "What happened?"

This time it was Kisara who had to guard her emotions against the person who sat next to her. "I wasn't well liked by the people in my home town. They thought I was a witch because of my hair. And they bullied me because of it. They weren't afraid to let their opinion be known, either. They would throw rocks and sticks at me whenever they saw me. And the teachers at school wouldn't stop the kids in my class, even if they saw it happen. Going back to my parents' house wasn't even a relief. They hated me just as much as everyone else. I had to do all of the work around the house, all of the cooking and cleaning. While keeping up with my school work." She laughed bitterly at this. "The teachers were just looking for a reason to fail me, to expel me." She finally noticed that Seto's emotionless mask had fallen, only to be replaced by a look of horror. "What? You didn't realize that people could sink low enough to torment their own flesh and blood, to torture kids that they've known since kindergarten? Well, they can." Her voice was full of undisguised hatred at this statement. Suddenly, though, the harsh tone cracked, and as she repeated her last sentence, Seto saw tears well up in her eyes.

He reached out, acting on instinct, and pulled her into his arms, pressing her face into his shoulder.

"It's not possible," he whispered quietly, talking to himself. "She can't be that person. It's not possible. That never even happened."

Seto tried to push away the memories that were resurfacing from his time in Egypt. But the attempts he made were futile, because a barrage of sights, sounds, and smells had assaulted his mind. The dry heat of the bright sun. The harsh gritty sand. The scent of sand, stone, and food. The sound of trumpets blaring in a wide stone chamber. The cool stone of a dark underground chamber.

The images that assaulted were just as vivid. A dark monster rising from the stone cliff in front of his eyes. The three Egyptian god monsters fighting against the dark beast. More and more images assailed his mind. The most shocking and jarring of the images, though, was that of a young woman being held in his arms, her chest no longer moving up and down with life. However, this was not the part that made him freeze. What made him freeze was the girl's physical appearance: light silver blue hair, long through the air to brush the ground, and pale skin that looked white against then darkly tanned skin of his own arms. He knew that her eyes would be the same vibrant blue as the Nile River that flowed only miles away.

What awoke him from these visions, though, was not the screams that he knew would follow the young woman's death, but the young woman who could be the twin of the woman whom he had seen die. Kisara was shaking his shoulder, still tightly clasped in his arms.

"Seto! Seto! Are you alright?" she asked when his eyes finally focused on her face. She could see the ghosts haunting his eyes. "Seto, what's wrong?"

She saw his eyes clear more, as though her image was helping to repress whatever was haunting him. When they did finally clear completely she found herself being tightly squeezed. She could hear him whispering the same phrase over and over again, and by the time Seto was whispering it for the seventh or eighth time she finally understood him.

"They're the same," was being spoken like a prayer, unending and being spoken in secret. "They're exactly the same."

"Seto, what's wrong?" Kisara questioned her savior and confidant.

"Kisara," he spoke up suddenly, ignoring the query that was still hanging in the air, "do you ever have dreams or visions about living in ancient Egypt?"

To say she was surprised by the question would be an understatement; she was practically going into shock.

"What do you mean? You don't mean to tell me that you have them too? I thought it was only a coincidence." Her last sentence was spoken quietly. She was afraid that he would react the same way that her parents had when she told them about her strange visions and nightmares; there was no way that she would call most of those images dreams.

"So you do have them?"

"I wouldn't call them dreams, but yeah. Why? Do you have them too?"

He looked at her and smiled, a true smile, not one of those smirks that he always sported on television. "I have them. What do yours show you?"

"Fire. Lots of fire. A wooden cage, locked from the outside, with men sitting around a campfire. A teenage boy with brown hair moving towards the cage. He unlocks the cage, but the men catch him and start shouting." Kisara shivered as she remembered what one of her nightmares had shown her.

"The boy helped you escape on a white horse, then told you to keep going onto the next village, didn't he?" Seto was looking at her with apologetic eyes.

"Yes," her voice was not saturated with surprise as it was only moments before, but was instead filled with conviction. "You were that boy, weren't you? And the priest who saved me from a mob outside the palace years later?"

He chuckled again for a few seconds, then looked down at his hands, which had clenched themselves into tight fists in his lap. "A few years ago I would have been tempted to tell you to shut up and stop talking nonsense. I guess, though, that the only appropriate answer I can give you is yes."

"What changed?"

"You did. You died to save me back then, and when I saw you falling before that was all I could think about."

"What? Being saved by a girl?" she joked, knowing perfectly well what he meant.

"You dying." She saw him shudder as he spoke the words.

"Seto, listen to me. I'm right here and I'm not going to die. Now, on a lighter note: did you look at my deck?"

"No, I promise. Pegasus looked through it, because he wanted to see if you were visiting or had actually left home. He said that he could tell that you had left because of the cards that you had with you?"

"He can. My main deck is built completely, well almost completely, around two monsters and their attributes. The other cards are all cards that I designed or helped to design. If I'm only going on vacation I leave those in a safe that I had in my room."

* * *

There it was, the ever-so-amazing chapter 7. I will tell you all right now that I have most of what I want to have as chapter 8 written, I just need to type it.

Keep on reading, it's good for you. But don't do what I made the mistake of doing and read just fanfiction. Pick up a regular book every once and a while.


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